1) What is Ultrasound Imaging and why it is so important?
Ultrasound Imaging, or in simple terms Ultrasound, is the examination performed on our body organs for the purpose of their simple morphological study until the precise assessment of their movements and their blood flow using the sound waves which turn into a picture.
Τhe ability of ultrasonography to discover easily and reliably minor abnormalities and substantiate their benignity or malignancy makes it extremely important in the field of preventive medicine
2) Does this examination emit radiation?
Ultrasound control has no irradiation; therefore it is completely safe to test pregnant women and babies, which means that we start the preventive control from a foetal age.
3) What is a Triplex?
The examination using the ultrasound on the vessels and the heart is called triplex, because vascular and heart structures and the blood flow are monitored in a simultaneous morphological, kinetic and haemodynamic study.
4) Which organs can the Ultrasound check?
The brain, heart, body vessels (arteries, veins), lymph nodes, thyroid gland, parotid gland, oral glands, joints, muscles, breasts, liver, gall bladder, pancreas , spleen, kidneys, adrenal glands, bladder, uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes, prostate gland, seminal vesicles, testis. Lately, some medical centres started check-ups in the large intestine.
5) Which examinations/tests you suggest should be done in accordance to gender and age?
Always in consultation with the clinician, who is informed of the patient’s medical history, we could choose the proper tests and examinations according to gender and age.
So, starting with the infants, hip ultrasound has now become established as a routine check for blocking hip dislocation, such an important condition that if diagnosed early, it contributes to the normal life of the individual. A brain ultrasound check- up in babies can also be given – especially in premature babies – and abdominal and testicular for possible cryptorchidia.
Children that start primary school should have a heart triplex and an abdominal and thyroid ultrasound.